KALAMAZOO — Originally conceived as a celebration through song and family activities of the life-giving powers of water, the inaugural Kalamazoo Water Festival, scheduled for Aug. 14, has since turned into something much larger.

Last week’s Enbridge Inc. oil spill in Marshall sent more than 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. Residents along the river have been evacuated and containment and cleanup efforts continue.

For festival organizers, they say the tone of the festival has shifted and several activities using the river, such as a fishing seminar, have been moved to the festival site or canceled. There will be no activities on the Kalamazoo River.

“The Water Festival was going to be an event to highlight the river and get people out on it. Now, that’s not as big a selling point, because of the oil. On the other hand, this is an opportunity to talk about how this can’t happen,” event co-coordinator and local singer/songwriter Michael Beauchamp said.

Ann Arbor singer/songwriter and Kalamazoo native Joe Reilly playing the “The Kalamazoo River Song” at the Woodward School for Technology and Research

“There’s a lot of attention, clearly, on the river and water issues right now. I certainly didn’t want attention of this sort. I’m frankly shocked and feel a little bit overwhelmed,” said Jeff Spoelstra, co-organizer of the festival and coordinator for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, a river and watershed advocacy group.

Overwhelmed not only because an accident of this magnitude can change the makeup of the local watershed, but also because it has changed the makeup of the festival.

The event was to be held in two parts with morning activities taking place at Verberg Park on the Kalamazoo River, and afternoon and evening music being performed at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place.

The morning events, which included a short canoe ride in the river that organizers dubbed “Kanoe the Kazoo,” a children’s fishing and casting seminar, a kayak demonstration from Lee’s Adventure Sports and a riverfront walk and watershed class have either been canceled or moved to the afternoon at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place, Spoelstra said.

For example, the fishing and casting seminar will be held on dry land at the festival site during the afternoon.

The site will also host a collection of speakers, booths and Michigan musical acts — all with the aim of getting “as many people here as we can, to celebrate everything that’s going on and to find out ways that they can help,” Spoelstra said.